Brooklyn

Another reader writes in...We didn’t have a lot of original detail left in this apartment (we live on one floor of our four family in Crown Heights) when we started our renovation. The entire apartment renovation took about 4 months and was done under a super tight budget of $12,000 for labor, including plumbing and electric upgrades. For the kitchen we spent about $4,000, including labor and appliances (which are basic GE stainless steel).

We installed a cobalt blue sink and a old fashioned copper faucet we brought back from South America (which looks great but my husband hates because it sprays him when he does the dishes). We found the long stained glass window at Olde Goode Things, and had it built into the ceiling to create a feeling of division between the kitchen and living areas. Our main concern in the kitchen design (and the whole apartment) was maximizing the light coming in from the Southern exposure — the kitchen windows. We didn’t want to have heavy cabinets and so opted for an open kitchen which has worked really well for us. We ordered the tile from mosaic house in the city, which does imports from Morocco. While I love the tile, I wish I had hired someone recommended by the store that really knew how to work with this hand
cut clay tiles as I think it was a little challenging for our contractor. He built the entire kitchen out of wood and a water proof sort of plaster board, and then tiled over it. The floor is grey limestone.

We had one “disaster” when we went to replace the ceilings and found that the support beams had be literally cut out from below the bathroom above. Our contractor and my husband had to jack up the beams while an additional support beam was inserted, and the entire house shook.